This is What We
Did in Our Class
Web Essay Screencast
Sean Mattio
Sean Mattio reflects on composing his
web essay.
Transcript
[00:00]
[Images of the class website and a photograph of both the Coen
Brothers and Cormac McCarthy, zooming in to their faces as they are
mentioned in the narration.]
Hello, everybody.
For this screencast, I've chosen to focus on the first assignment we
were given in this class, the web essay on No Country for Old Men, both
the novel by Cormac McCarthy and its movie adaptation by the Coen
brothers.
[00:17]
[Visual click-through of an example of a web essay from the class
website. Blocks of text are on the page, separated by a few embedded
video files.]
For this assignment, we were expected to incorporate various media into
our essay, including video clips and images.
[00:29]
[Google search for the word "traditionalist" and zooming in to a result
summary defining it as "Adherence to tradition"]
Now I consider myself a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to the
study of literature.
[00:45]
[Video of scrolling through an essay, presumably one written for a
previous class, then a Google search for "William Faulkner"]
So I felt most comfortable with the typical essay. Four to six pages,
double-spaced on a celebrated novel by a famous writer . . . William
Faulkner, for instance. Give me a group of southern authors, have me
read their novels and write an essay on it, and I am happy!
[01:15]
[Google search for "web essay," brief glimpse of the web results page]
When we were first given the web essay assignment, I felt very
confident. It seemed like something I was very capable of doing.
Although admittedly, I'd never done a web essay before and wasn't too
sure of what it was outside of what it sounded like--an essay on the
web. But it seems not only did I not know . . . Google didn't have very
many
ideas either.
[01:45]
[Video: Google image search for "web essay." Scrolling through
images of graphic organizers, miscellaneous pictures. Clicks on a
picture of a burger and fries.]
Behold. The web essay.
[01:53]
[Empty word processor page, typing. No
Country
for
Old
Men. Scrolling through blank pages.]
My initial attempts at brainstorming for the web essay seemed to be
going nowhere.
However, I remembered that in class we discussed adaptation studies.
[02:12]
[Google search for "adaptation studies." Click into first resulting
website, an article on adaptation studies is shown.]
Specifically in regards to the transition from McCarthy's novel to the
Coens' film.
[02:26]
[Article "Adaptation Studies at a Crossroads" (Leitch) is shown. As
applicable lines of the article are spoken in the narration, the lines
are highlighted on the screen.]
The article we read on adaptation studies made sure to distinguish
between "literature and film" and "literature on film," citing that,
"historically, cinematic adaptations of novels had been focused purely
on their literary aspects." However, this article suggested that
"literary adaptations were at once cinema and literature," inhabiting
both spheres.
[02:55]
[Google homepage is shown, an image of a movie poster for No Country
For Old Men is shown on top of the Google page.]
Harkening back to my literary traditionalism, I found the concept of
adaptation, in terms of from novel to cinema, to be a very interesting
idea to explore further.
[03:06]
[Movie poster image is removed, video zooms in to Google search bar,
search for "Faulkner adaptations."]
Even my old friend Faulkner had been adapted to film.
[03:23]
[Blank pages of essay on No Country
for Old Men shown again]
So, I initially felt a bit daunted by the format of the essay, not
knowing what was really expected of me. The more I though about it, the
more I realized it wasn't that much different from the traditional pen
and paper essay.
[03:37]
[Zoom out from the blank essay, shows screen with a YouTube video clip
from No Country for Old Men
and a Google image results page for "No
Country for Old Men"]
However, the web essay allowed for a new dimension of analysis by
granting use of film clips for auditory elements and images for the
visual aspects.
[04:05]
[Return to blank essay page, an image of Moss, Chigurh, and Bell is
pasted into the document as the narration discusses it. Typing: "life,
death, and ultimate meaninglessness."]
In the end, I chose to explore No
Country for Old Men, both the novel
and its film adaptation, in terms of existential crisis, looking at
how each of its lead characters, Moss, Chigurh, and Bell, each embody
to various forms and in varying degrees both McCarthy's and and the
Coen's themes of life, death, and ultimate meaninglessness.
[04:41]
[Screen shows a page of html script, then shows the final result of
Sean's web essay on the school website.]
The only obstacle left to overcome was my html illiteracy.
But in the end, it didn't pose too much of a problem, and my web essay
turned out beautifully. Or so I think.
[05:00]
[Screen fades out]